Local author publishes first book of poetry and short stories

When Maria Killeen was growing up in Athlone she says she was “always making up stories and poems” but it was only much later in life that she took her brother’s advice and started writing them down.

That sage advice has resulted in Maria publishing her first book of whimsical poetry and short stories called “Romance at the Race Dance” which is currently available for sale through the Athenry-based book publishing website, Book Hub Publishing.

Known as “Goretti” to her family and friends due to the fact that she was christened Maria Goretti Killeen, she is the youngest of eight children born to the late Jim and Mary Killeen from Deerpark and later Mardyke Street in Athlone.

“My Dad owned The Marian Café on Mardyke Street and my Mam had a cake shop on the Connaught side of town called The Marionette, so our house was a very busy place and we saw very little of our parents when we were growing up,” she says.

As a child, Maria would describe herself as being “a bit of a loner” and says she had very little confidence. ”People didn’t have much confidence in those days, and I think parents also had a very different relationship with their children as well, in that they were not nearly as involved in their children’s lives as the parents of today.”

On her first day in primary school at St Peter’s, Maria Killeen can recall “crying all day.” She was brought to school by her big sister, Eileen, and she says it was one of the worst days of her life. “I went to secondary school in Summerhill and I was very unhappy there too,” she says.

“When I was about 14 years old a poem just came into my head about foot and mouth disease, and I went into the Westmeath Independent office with it to see if I could get it published, and I couldn’t believe when it appeared in print in the paper the very next week,” she says.

Maria says writing was “always a hobby” and it helped her to process a lot of things that were happening in her life. In 2011 she experienced a huge relationship crisis which had a profound effect on her, so much so that she remained housebound for almost a year.

“Writing became my saviour and I found it very cathartic, so when my brother John published his own book he encouraged me to try to find a publisher for some of my own writing, which I did.”

The part-time nurse, who lived in Galway for many years and now lives in Ballinasloe, says she toyed around with many possible titles for her collection of poetry and short stories before she settled on “Romance at the Race Dance” but she is happy with the title she chose, in conjunction with Book Hub Publishing.

Her father passed away in 1981 and she says one of the regrets she has is that she probably never had “a proper conversation” with him at any point in her life. “I was the youngest and my father was always busy and he was a very big man physically so I don’t think he even realised I was there half the time,” she says.

When her mother passed away in 1993, the Killeen family home was sold and Maria bought a house in Garden Vale which she later sold when she moved to Galway. The Killeens were to experience the passing of another family member in August 2008 when the oldest member of the family, Marie, passed away after a brave battle with cancer.

The remaining members of the family are Rod, John, Eileen, Ann, JJ, Christina and Maria.

“Romance at the Race Dance” is priced at €9.99 and can be purchased by going on the website of Book Hub Publishing: www.bookhubpublishing,com